Amber came back with a box full of organic ingredients and I wondered just how much she spent on them.

But when I opened the box, I frowned upon seeing the stuff inside.

"Amber? Half of these are bad…"

She looked over my shoulder as I took out a mouldy apple from within the box.

"Eh? They are?" Amber asked, surprised.

Lea also came over and took out a cabbage that had some holes in its leaves, "Yes… This one seems to be infested with worms… I'm more surprised that they even managed to get it infested in the first place actually."

Amber's eyes widened, "Wait… So I got scammed?!"

I raised an eyebrow at her, "How much did you pay for this?"

"Ten thousand Credits! He assured me that it was packed properly and they took it from a cold storage freighter!"

Lea grimaced, "Unfortunately… I believe you got scammed for this…"

Amber clutched her head in despair, "Noooo!! Does that mean we aren't going to eat any organic food tonight?!"

She's more worried about that instead of the ten thousand Credits she just wasted…

I rummaged through the box, "Hmm… I think I can still make something with this… I just need some time to cut out the bad parts. Definitely not going to use the ones that are already really bad though… Oh! Do you think we can make compost with that?"

Lea blinked at me, "Compost? What is that?"

"Eh? You know… Fertiliser for… Oh wait… You guys don't use soil to grow stuff, do you?"

"Ah… I'm afraid we don't. Even on our home worlds, we mainly use hydroponics for our farms since we don't have that much land to use the soil for farming. Humans are the ones who are better at that than we are."

"What is the Alv home world like?"

She smiled at me, "It's beautiful, Captain. I would very much like to show it to you if we get the chance. Towering buildings that reach all the way up into the sky while wrapped in plants, walkways stretching in between those buildings that make you feel like you're walking on air, trees that dwarf even the biggest buildings that we have built… It's a marvellous place."

"That actually sounds pretty cool. Maybe we can go there one day?" I asked.

"I'll be your guide when that day comes, Captain."

Amber clutched at my arm, "That's nice and all but… Can we really still eat something organic tonight?"

Oh right. I haven't made dinner for them yet… Guess I should get started.

I looked through the box that Amber had brought back and separated out the ingredients that were at least still fresh enough from the ones that were obviously bad.

After taking care of the bad parts, I managed to cook up a rather simple vegetable stew for us using the scavenged ingredients that were on the bad side.

I decided to save the rotting parts as compost and see if I could find some soil in the markets tomorrow.

I intended to just get maybe a small pot's worth of it to see if I could just grow something else on the side. If they don't have any, then I can just toss them out anyway so it's not like I'm losing out on much.

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As for our dinner… As expected, the two of them were literally crying over the food even though I used subpar ingredients.

Well… I still had to use some of my synthfood seasonings to make it so all in all… It was pretty good even if I do say so myself.

Now that we were fed, it was time to call it a night and I let Lea have the bedroom with the bunk bed, which happened to be the room where we would be using to make a hydroponics farm.

I was worried that she might not like that her room was being used for something else but she seemed to be really happy about it instead.

I guess being close to plants puts her at ease?

Of course, Amber slept with me that night and we had sex, naturally.

I had initially been concerned that Amber's screams of pleasure would be heard by Lea but then again… It's not like we didn't make our relationship clear from the start so I just threw caution to the wind and ploughed my lover hard from behind.

I woke up earlier than Amber the next morning and decided to do a quick check on Lea.

When I got out of my room, I found her door open so I got curious and peeked inside.

There, I found her looking over the hydroponics garden while wearing nothing but her panties.

"You're up early," I commented from the door.

She jumped slightly from my voice as she spun around, only to relax when she saw it was me.

"Ah, good morning Captain. I… Have a habit of rising early I would say."

"Ahaha, that's almost the opposite of Amber. She'll sleep in till the afternoon if I'm not there to wake her up."

Her cheeks suddenly flushed, "Y… Yes… Although I suppose it's not surprising considering how… Vigorous your activities are at night…"

Well… As I thought, she heard us alright.

I decided not to say anything about it and tried to change the topic, "So… You hungry? I can make something up for us."

She seemed surprised by my suggestion, "Eh? Is… Is that alright, Captain? Haven't you been cooking for the past two meals already? Isn't this a bit too extravagant?"

I chuckled, "Well, before this I would be the one to cook for all the meals. Ever since Amber tasted my cooking, synthfood just won't cut it for her anymore. Besides, I also can't stomach synthfood myself after I started cooking so it's not like I'm forcing myself to cook anyway. Eating delicious food will always be preferred over eating that synthetic junk."

"How nice… I dare say that no other Mercenary Captain would have a luxury on par with this. On our ship, we only had a few people who knew how to cook, although I would even hesitate to call them chefs now that I have seen how Captain prepares the food."

"I'm actually more surprised that the concept of combining ingredients together seems foreign to you."

She gave me a sad smile, "When we now have machines to do everything for you… I suppose some skills are lost in the process."

"Oh right, I remember hearing about those automated cooking machines or whatever. Aren't those more for synthfood though?"

Lea shook her head, "They can also work for organic ingredients too. All you have to do is feed the cooker with the ingredients and then it will be able to churn out food based on what you feed into it. You wouldn't even need to do anything else."

"And no one wonders how the machine makes the food? Like combining them together?"

She shrugged, "Do you ever wonder how your ship flies? About how the engine parts are put together to enable it to travel at sub-light speeds?"

I grimaced, "I see your point. The thing works and we're reaping the benefits of it so we don't bother questioning it."

Lea nodded, "Indeed. The people who actually think about cooking without the usage of automatic cookers are seen as the eccentric or just hobbyists instead of actual chefs. Although there are a few places where some might have actually studied and learned how to cook properly, they are few and far between and mostly found only in the inner colonies instead of around the outer rims like this."

That got my attention, "Are you telling me that the best chefs are found there?"

"Mnn… That is normally the case. That is why I was surprised to learn that Captain--"

"Good morning everyone!!" Amber's voice came from behind me suddenly, causing both of us to jump in surprise.

The blonde haired Merc grinned at us, "Oh! Looks like she's also an early riser, Tera! How nice~ So what's for breakfast?"

I raised an eyebrow, "I'm surprised you even woke up by yourself today… Usually I'd have to drag you out of bed or wake you up with another round of sex in bed before you would even wake up. What changed?"

"Hmmm? Maybe I got a little worried when I didn't feel your presence beside me in bed this morning so I came out to check~ Then I found you flirting with your new crewmate over here~"

I rolled my eyes, "We weren't flirting."

"Mmhmm~ Sure you weren't~ Anyway! What's for breakfast? I'm already starving! You didn't even wake me up with the usual fucking so I'm hungry both down there and up here!"

Geez, you're really a glutton huh?

Oh well, since we're already up anyway, I suppose I'll just cook up something nice for us. Then we'll have to go and look for some gardening supplies around here.